Lelei's Feet Problems
by Frob
Summary: Itami learns that Lelei needs a foot massage and helps her out. It leads him down a slippery slope he did not expect to find himself in. Meanwhile, Lelei is trying to keep it all a secret.
1. Chapter 1

_ROAD FROM ITALICA TO ALNUS BASE 15:00_

Lelei La Lalena was reading a book in Japanese, while itami was driving the Humvee. Tuka, Rory and Yao where wispering something in to each other's ears and giggling, almost uncontrollably.

The book that she was reading was about massage, and she thought it would be great to learn about "healing" from the Japanese and apply it in the Special Region to help her people. Suddenly she opened the section about foot massages, upon reading it she started to imagine the sensation of that in her own feet. She had never experienced a foot massage before, but even reading about it made her feel ecstatic. She blushed and widened her eyes as she read on. The more words and images that she took in, the more she lost touch with reality. She was having a vision of Itami rubbing the sore spots from her feet, which she had a lot of.

"Lelei…" She heard Itami's voice. Unfortunately, to no avail, she was still in her trance from the book.

"Yes, right under… the toes." She mumbled, as Itami shook her: "LELEI"

"Ah…Uhm…" She finally came to and woke up. She noticed that the book was closed, so everyone was dumbfounded about what had happened to her.

"For a second there we thought you had a fever or something. Is everything alright?" itami asked putting his hand on her forehead.

"You're a whim." Rory laughed at Lelei. The gothic girl then proceeded to sit on Itami's lap.

"Hey, what are you doing? I am driving!" He complained, but the girl refused to budge. Itami just had to accept it and continued driving.

Tuka approached Lelei and questioned whether something was bothering her.

"You sure you're going to be okay?" She asked and looked at the book Lelei was reading, but did not give it a second thought. Lelei nodded in response, and went back to reading the book, but this time she turned to a different chapter, avoiding the topic of foot massages, since she decided that it affects her in a mysterious way. Unfortunately, she could not get the image of Itami giving her a foot rub out of her head. It was in the back of her head until they arrived to the base.

 _ALNUS BASE 17:30_

It had been half an hour since they arrived to the base. Everyone went their way, while Itami returned to his quarters to fill out paperwork. He was filling out a sheet concerning the local resources, when suddenly he heard a knock on the door. Before he could open it or even react it opened and closed really quickly. It was Lelei. She was calm, but something about her demeanor showed that she rushed in to the room, and was very secretive about it.

"Lelei…" Itami wanted to say something, but Lelei took small finger and put it on his lips and let out a "Shhhh…" Itami was confused. After a moment of silence, Lelei blushed and whispered in Itami's ear:

"My feet hurt." Her voice was trembling.

"Wait, you were in the car all day, how can they…" Itami protested, but she gave him a blank stare, and put her finger on his lips again. Itami was still puzzled by the girl's statement. He looked at her shoes, they did not resemble any shoes found in Japan. He remembered that Tuka was given new shoes, but not Lelei.

"Do you need new shoes? I can fill a report out for you, so you can get modern ones." He said pulling out a piece of paper.

"No." She answered briefly and sat on the chair to the opposite from Itami, putting her feet on his desk, right on the paper he was filling out. Itami looked at her and her feet. He reached out and took off her shoes to see if everything was in order. Her eyes shined and she blushed, but still stared at Itami without displaying too much emotion. Itami revealed a pair of small pale feet, and studied them with his eyes. Not seeing any injuries, he responded:

"You seem fine, what are you worried about?" He asked the blue haired girl. Lelei tried to say something, but the embracement was just too much, so she just flexed her toes. Itami was still puzzeled. He put some pressure with his thumb on her upper sole on her left foot:

"Does it hurt here?" He asked while Lelei blushed even further, she became so red that Itami noticed it.

"What did you do to it? I'll call in a doctor." He wanted to get up, but Lelei finally got enough courage and air to say:

"I…uhm… just need a massage." She mumbled. Itami smiled and gently popped her toes. Lelei got excited, and a faint smile appeared on her face. The next thing she felt was the pressure of Itami's thumb on her soles. She went in to a sort of euphoric state, as Itami worked on her feet. Her arches had a lot of sore spots, but they were being rubbed out like they never existed. She could hear the pops and cracks coming from both of her feet and ankles. It was a little painful, but at the same time very relaxing. Itami was not only massaging, but also moving her toes and ankles, and during one of the movements she felt like something was not right with her left ankle, it was popping way too much. She could not recall hurting it, but it felt like it was hurt a long time ago.

Itami suddenly stopped, and examined the ankle. He pressured it with his thumb and started massaging it. Lelei felt very relaxed, but also concerned. Itami was also a little concerned by the state of her feet.

"Looks like you do have some issues, I might fill out the report after all with more details." He said, letting go of her ankle. Lelei snapped from the trance completely. She wanted to protest, but her ankle did cause some concern, so she stayed quiet as Itami filled out the report. She was blushing, she did not want anyone to know about the ordeal, and Itami noticed that.

"You are going to be fine." He said as he stood up and walked out of the office and brought an anke brace back. He put the brace on her foot.

"You will need this for our future adventures. I don't want you getting hurt. Whenever you want a foot massage, just stop by and I'll give you one." He said, as Lelei slipped in to her shoes, she was amazed by the comfort after the massage. She approached Itami again and put her finger on his lips like she did when she came in, with a loud: "Shhh".

"Don't worry Lelei, your secret is safe with me." He said, as Lelei went on her way.

 _MEANWHILE_

"Lelei got her feet pampered by Itami… Why her? I have been on my feet for more than 900 years… My turn has come." Rory announced, as she crawled through Itami's window.

 _To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

Itami immediately noticed Rory after he sent Lelei on his way. He gulped out of fear, surely Rory knew what had happened and got very jealous. She was smiling, but at the same time she looked like she was going to demand something from him. Itami looked down at her red boots.

"You want a foot massage as well, I bet." He asked, the girl giggled and licked her lips. She suddenly became serious.

"Itami, why did you agree to help Lelei? Is it because of the Three Nights Ceremony?" She questioned, almost angrily.

"No, not at all. She just had problems, and I decided to help her out." He replied scratching the back of his head nervously. "She wanted me to keep quiet though."

"Hah, I don't really care, Yoji." She sat on the bed and kicked off her boots. "Now, do the thing you did for Lelei."

Itami shook his head in disapproval and started rubbing her feet. It felt like she had way more sore sports than Lelei. This confused Itami, since he thought she could regenerate her wounds. Meanwhile, Rory was moaning from pleasure.

"Nine… uhh.. hundred years on my feet. My… first… massage…" She groaned. "Be gentle."

"Ah, right. So, I assume you've had this problem when you turned in to a demigod?" He asked. Rory nodded in response. Rory's feet were slightly bigger and paler than Lelei's. Her ankle seemed stable and stronger, though during the massage there was initally a lot of popping coming out of her joints, it decreased significantly towards the end.

"Huh, your feet are in a better shape than Lelei's." Itami noticed while working on her right arch.

"Yoji… That's the stuff." Rory inhaled and exhaled falling asleep. Itami continued on for several minutes and finally stopped. He woke Rory up after an hour and sent her back to her residence. She put on her shoes and smiled looking at Itami:

"When I am the Goddess of Love, you are going to do every day. Your soul belongs to me." She announced and went on her merry way. Itami jumped on his bed and went to sleep from the exhaustion and

MEANWHILE AT LELEI'S

Lelei started reading more about her condition, and decided to stay off her ankle for a few days, while wearing her brace just to keep the stress levels reduced. She used some healing magic to strengthen it, though she realized nothing helped her better than Itami's massage. Her feet felt less heavy.

After little contemplation, she decided to go to the General and request a secret mission in one of the small towns nearby, but in reality she just wanted to get away from the base and get as many massages as she could from Itami until she was completely satisfied by the results it was producing.

"The ceremony of Three Nights must be honored with this operation. By using this custom to my advantage while filling out the report, I might as well just get some alone time with Itami and my secret will be safe." She thought and went to sleep.

NEXT MORNING 6:00 AM

Itami woke up early in the morning. He received an email from the central command: "Cultural Exploration", which talked about an arrangement of a diplomatic mission to some remote mountainous village of wizards. The words TOP SECRET was on top of the email, and it stated that the only person that is permitted to go on this trip was Lelei La Lalena, due to the local "Ceremony of Three Nights" being complete.

"WHAT?!" Itami yelled upon seeing the email. "There must be a mistake, this cannot be happening."

He brought it to the attention of the General first thing after he left his quarters. Unfortunately, it was an "undisputable" order that, due to the dangers that these alleged mages could pose. Lelei did her homework and managed to scare the command in to sending Itami and her as a peace maker. She also managed to keep it private from everyone else, so they would not embark on the trip with them.

"LELEI!" Itami yelled as he got out of the General's quarters. He figured that there was her hand in all of this. He started to look for her, and found her immediately as she was driving the Humvee towards him. He shook his head in dissaproval, but obliged to jump in the Humvee and leave for the mission as soon as possible, since everyone thought it was urgent and of top importance.

For the first hour they did not talk at all, Itami was dissatisfied with his "Student/wife/friend", whatever Lelei was for him. Lelei just concentrated on the driving, without paying attention.

9:00

Itami finally broke the silence:

"What is the meaning of this, Lelei? What is so important in that village?" He asked raising his voice. Lelei only blushed, but did not answer his question. Itami looked at her again:

"Don't give me this silence again. I hate playing guessing games, spit it out." He demanded, but Lelei ignored him.

"Fine…" He sighed. "I am taking a nap, when I wake up, I expect to hear the details, or we are turning this Humvee around." He said and closed his eyes.

ABANDONED MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, 15:00

Itami finally woke up, only to find themselves high up in the mountains. The Humvee was stopped near a small house. They still had half a tank of their fuel, plus some in reserve, so he was not worried. When he looked at the time he screamed from the top of his lungs:

"LELEI!" The girl was not in the truck, instead he assumed that she went in to the house. When he arrived he noticed the fireplace was burning and there were two neatly made beds. It looked very cozy by medieval standards. Now Itami called with more curiosity than anger:

"Lelei?" He let out and the girl came down from the attic with some bottles filled with different oils.

"How long since we arrived?" He questioned.

"We arrived around 13:00 military time. I got enough fuel to make the trip back after a few days." She explained.

"I've been asleep for so long. So where are the threatening wizards?" He asked.

"All clear, they don't live in this village anymore." A small smile appeared on her face. Itami was a little shocked.

"So, you are telling me, we came here for nothing?" He asked quietly, a little annoyed.

"No. I have also been exploring a few ways you can make my feet feel better. Without anyone attempting to breach the tranquility and secrecy of the process." She finally explained.

Itami got up and almost went towards the car, when suddenly he noticed tears falling from Lelei's eyes. She was very serious and dedicated towards the process. He felt bad, and decided to play along and help her out.

"Alright, alright. Four days should be enough to relieve all the stress from your feet." He explained, and Lelei happily handed him a bottle, full of green liquid.

"Use this on them." She said and started taking off her shoes and her new brace as well.

MEANWHILE IN ALNUS

Rory was wondering wherever itami went. She met up with the others at the bar and started talking about her experience the more she got drunk:

"So, get this, Tuka. Yoji completely got rid of the 900-year-old pain that I had in my feet, only with the touch of his hands. No magic, no nothing."

Yao and Tuka, stared at each other, and started back at Rory.

"I might ask him for one when he returns." Yeo commented, even though Rory was talking mostly to Tuka.

"Dad's not going to get out of this one, without giving me my fair share of foot rubs." Tuka laughed, also enjoying her drink.

"Hey, guys, where is Lelei?" Yao suddenly asked. "I have not seen her, since Itami left…"

A moment of silence, was followed by a collective shriek.

"She has kidnapped Yoji! She is reaping the benefits of his wonderful massages for herself, without giving us a chance to share them. Elmroy will be furious with her actions!" Rory went crazy all of a sudden.

"My feet are sore, and in the name of my clan, I shall not rest until they are restored to their former glory." Yao declared.

"Let's go find Dad!" Tuka took the opportunity to lead the party to the General.

 _To Be Continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

Lelei was breathing heavily as Itami worked on her right foot. He flexed every toe and was now massaging them, with popping sounds coming from them.

"I dropped so many potions on my toes, it is not even funny." Lelei commented as she heard those pops. "Maybe I have broken them in the past."

"They don't look like they were ever broken." Itami commented as he continued massaging and flexing each toe individually. The substance that Lelei asked Itami to use was some strange green oil, that allegedly made the bones and muscles stronger. It was a part of her plan designed to improve her overall comfort and use Itami as her "savior".

"What is this?" Itami looked at his fingers as they got covered in green goo. Lelei explained without any expression on her face:

"It is made from rare plants that grow in these mountains, they should help my old injuries heal faster. Apply it, gently, on my ankles." She pointed at her ankles. Itami obliged, rubbing the green goo in to her ankles. Lelei felt more comfort and relief that before, so she closed her eyes and fell asleep, while Itami continued to massage her ankles. He stopped when Lelei fell completely in to the slumber world.

As Itami stopped, Lelei had a dream about her sprain, and how she managed to ignore it for so long until Itami first touched it. She remembered riding a horse, while trying to learn using magic for future mounted combat, that threw her off, and she fell on the rocks that were near the entrance to the forest. She lightly hit her head, but also remembered hearing a pop coming from her ankle and the pain that made her pass out. She also remembered her master putting a seal on it, just to prevent the pain. The seal was an eagle on a top of the mountain… It suddenly flashed in her eyes with a bright blue light and woke her up.

Itami was sleeping in a bed next to hers. It was evening time and it was getting pretty chilly, and her bare feet were getting pretty cold. She decided to awake Itami, but before that she used her magic to take off the seal out of her ankle. It started to ache a little bit, had she taken it off before Itami found out about her injury, it probably would have hurt way more.

"Itami" She moaned popping her ankle, it popped louder than usual. She felt like her foot was getting heavier and colder. Itami woke up partially because Lelei called him and partially because he heard the pop.

"Are you okay, Lelei?" He approached the girl and kneeled down beside her.

"I took off the magical seal. It hurts a little." She moved her foot, and Itami heard another pop. He quickly grabbed her ankle and examined it. It seemed a little weaker than previously, but not to a degree where Lelei could not walk. Her foot was a bit tight, but nothing a massage could not fix, even though he already did so. He started massaging the ankle again, this time he felt that there was a lot of instability and issues, she probably needed crutches, but "the seal" that she talked about prevented from determining how bad the sprain was. He decided to work on the foot and relieve the tension before he could continue. He worked on the middle of her sole, when Lelei lifted her head up and started to study Itami's finger movements. She was blushing a little, but enjoying every second as his fingers made circular motions.

She slowly got sleepy and put her head back on the pillow, her foot was feeling relaxed. She tried to move it, but Itami's grip was too strong, and it tickled a little, so she let out a giggle.

"Thank you, Itami." She said moving her ankle slightly. "I think you fixed it."

"It's not that simple Lelei, you'll need months to recover." Itami said and put her brace back on her ankle. Lelei closed her eyes and she fell sound asleep. Itami also went to bed, planning to go back to the base tomorrow, but he started to enjoy the atmosphere and carelessness in the cabin.

THE NEXT DAY

Itami woke up to a popping sound coming every little feet hit the floor. It became loud enough to grab his attention. He turned around and the bed next to him was empty, with the ankle brace lying on the sheet. He gathered Lelei was walking around the cabin without it.

"It pops, but it does not hurt." He heard her voice coming from the front of his bed. With every step she took the popping was getting louder and louder, which sickened Itami a little bit. After a few minutes, he finally broke the silence:

"Lelei, sit down, you should not be walking around like this." He suggested, the girl obliged and sat on the bed. She started to make circular motions with her ankle and it continued making popping noises, which Itami grew more concerned about. He thought that Lelei should rest for a few weeks, and afterwards get sport shoes like Tuka did. Then he realized that he did not know how Tuka was getting used to them, and that she probably had issues as well.

Itami decided to get his medical kit from the Humvee. He got a strong elastic bandage and wrapped them around both of Lelei's feet. He elevated her weak ankle and put a brace on it, hoping that it would recover after a few weeks.

"So, Lelei, once we get back to the base, I am getting you crutches. Walk around in them for a little bit, and you should be fine in no time." He explained to her, but she gave him a blank stare.

"Crutches?" She repeated the word.

"Walking sticks, but better." Itami defined it as best as he could. Lelei was fascinated. Before she could react though, there was a knock on the door, which startled the two temporary residents of the cabin. Itami heard a familiar voice, it was Tuka:

"I…got…here…first…I found… this…place…" She was out of breath. Elves were fast runners, so it took her a day longer to get here, but she managed somehow without Yao or Rory following her.

Itami opened the door, as Tuka walked in. He looked down at her muddy shoes. Lelei gave her the look of resentment, but decided to keep quiet.

"Tuka, you walked all the way here?" Itami questioned, with the elf nodding in response. He helped her sit down and propped up her feet on his lap and took off her shoes, her feet looked beat up from all the walking, but not as bad as Itami expected. Tuka smiled, awaiting to receive what she came from. Lelei, on the other hand, was getting jealous, but tried to ignore it all.

 _To be continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

"Not a blister, Tuka. Elves are remarkable." Itami commented while slowly applying pressure on her right sole. Tuka sighed in relief as Itami's hand began to de-stress her worn out foot. Lelei was jealously watching from the side, she wanted to keep Itami for herself. She laid her back on the pillow of her bed and turned her face around.

"It feels great, Dad" Tuka moaned popping her toes as Itami's thumbs were going up and down her arch. Every tendon, every muscle, every joint and every bone in Tuka's foot was popping, but everything seemed to be intact despite the sound. Itami then proceeded towards her ankle, which popped once, but then stopped after Itami exercised and massaged it.

"It never did this before…" Tuka grew a little concerned and curious at what was going on, but Itami assured her that it was because of her long walk. Lelei popped her ankle in response, signaling to Itami that her situation was way worse. Itami ignored it as he put Tuka's right foot down and proceeded working on the left one the same way. Tuka was enjoying it all the way through, until Itami pressed on a point below her pinky toe. "Ugh..." Tuka uttered as she felt a weird pain sting that point. Itami noticed this and asked:

"Does it hurt when I do this?" He applied pressure on that spot again, as Tuka uttered again, this time louder: "Ugh..."

"Does not feel broken, for sure. Let me do it more gently than before, maybe that will work..." Itami suggested as he applied a little less pressure, at first Tuka attempted to reach her foot with her hand, but then backed away, as it did not hurt as much and actually started feeling better again. It took Itami almost half an hour until he could apply more pressure with Tuka not experiencing much pain.

"There we go." Itami was reassured that nothing was wrong, despite the long run Tuka undertook. Itami started exercising her toes, and her ankles, which popped, but stopped soon after. After a few minutes of massage, her feet were good as new, without Itami putting much effort. Still, Tuka enjoyed it so much she asked for more:

"Can you do the arch again?" She asked smiling cheerfully. Itami shook his head and proceeded to slide his thumb up and down her arch. He felt that there were several nods left there, but nothing of concern, still he could understand why Tuka's long slender feet might give her issues sometimes. After moving around her toes again, he found the biggest problems: her shoes were too short.

"I think we need to get better shoes for you, Tuka. Your feet are too long for these ones."

For some reason Itami noticed her toes started to contort. Even the massage did not prevent the series of cramps that followed from miles and miles of walking.

"Hnnng…" Tuka strained her face in pain as Itami popped her toes and rubbed her arches to make the cramps more bearable:

"Okay, Tuka, breathe. You are going to be fine." Itami reassured her and finally the pain and the cramps subsided.

Itami put some bandages on the Elf's feet so they would serve her as shoes until they arrived back to the military camp. Tuka smiled and thanked him, later on falling asleep in the bed where he had slept earlier.

After he was done, Lelei finally turned her face back to Itami, who told her:

"You lay there, Lelei, I think you should try and rest we are going to head back to the base in an hour or so."

"Oh, okay…" She sighed, with no emotion whatsoever. Lelei closed her eyes and fell asleep, relieved from all the stress and pain that she did not realized she carried with her a few days ago.

Itami carried both Tuka and Lelei in to the vehicle and went back to Alnus Base as they were sleeping. He decided that this village where Lelei had dragged him, was although a secluded place, there were more resources available in the base. When they arrived to their destination, Itami decided to take both girls to the shop to get them new shoes.

 _To be continued…_


End file.
